Congratulations to Builders Preserving America

A Santa Fe contractor’s work preserving an historic building has been honored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Crocker Ltd. shares the award with Bernalillo County for work on the Gutierrez-Hubbell House in Albuquerque’s South Valley.

The National Trust cited several reasons for honoring the project, including the use of the property as an achetype for drafting a completely new building code that applies specifically to historic adobe structures. This building is the first in the state to be restored under the new guidelines.

The house is a mid-19th century hacienda that once encompassed more than 40,000 acres and now sits on 10 acres along Isletea Boulevard. It was a stop on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro between Mexico City and the San Juan Pueblo, the earliest permanent colonial settlement in New Mexico.

The building has housed a post office and was the center of the Hubbell mercantile interests, including trading posts on the Navajo Nation and the Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado, Ariz., which is now a National Historic site.

The same family owned the home from the 1850s until 1997. In the late 1990s, Bernalillo County voters passed a mil levy approving the purchase and restoration of the property.

The building had severe deterioration and some walls had to be repaired by inserting whole or partial adobe bricks into vacant spaces. Some sections had to be completely rebuilt.

This is the fourth National Trust award Crocker has received. It specializes in earthen architecture construction and repair.